Weekend

 

This is the grave stone of my dads'  (and my) ancestor on dads' mothers' side. He has spoken of this man and seen his grave stone online.  We've talked about going up there - it's about five hours northwest from where we live. 

Since we always do a fall foliage trip we decided to do our annual trip to Chandlers Valley, Pennsylvania. 

We left Saturday morning and had a good trip up. It was really foggy for an hour or two of the trip and we wondered if we'd see anything! Lol! It cleared and we had great weather all weekend.

We found the cemetery, and we found the grave stone. Josiah Chandler was born in Connecticut in 1754. We don't know what made him settle in this area in Pennsylvania, but we have a few ideas. One is that this area would have been considered the western frontier. He may have been wanting to move west after the war. 

We do know that he is our ancestor and he survived the Revolutionary War. His stone says Veteran of Rev. War.

Pretty cool.

This makes at least two ancestors on my grandmothers' side that were involved in the Revolution. One - Thomas Lynch, Jr of South Carolina is a signer of the Declaration of Independence!

As a history lover, and proud American, this is amazing!

Josiah Chandler died at age 86. My dad is 87, and a veteran of the Vietnam war.

I'm thinking the stone may have been replaced at some point, as you can see the stone behind my dad is older, and Josiah's would have looked more like that originally.

On our way home yesterday, we also got to stop and visit our dear friend Ruth. She's had some health issues lately, so she hasn't been able to visit her son (our friend) much this year. We were so happy to be able to see her hometown and her, of course!

She is a natural optimist, like her son Mike. Mike is Tim's best friend, her daughter in law Jen is one of mine, their son Daniel is Kyle's, and their daughter Brooke is one of Rachel's best friends. We love this family dearly.

We got to watch the full moon rise last night on the way home. God is good, and greater than any other power. He is mighty and full of love and compassion. 

Lamentations 3:22-33 ESV - 

The ^steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;¹

his ^gmercies never come to an end;

23  they are new ^hevery morning;

great is your ⁱfaithfulness.

24  “The Lord is ^jmy portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will ^khope in him.”

25  The Lord is good to those who ^lwait for him,

to the soul who ^mseeks him.

26  It is good that one should wait ⁿquietly

for the salvation of the Lord.

27  It is good for a man that he bear

the yoke in his youth.

28  Let him sit alone in silence

when it is laid on him;

29  let him put his mouth in the dust—

there may yet be hope;

30  let him give his ^ocheek to the one who strikes,

and let him be filled with insults.

31  For the Lord will not

cast off forever,

32  for, though he cause grief, he will have compassion

according to the ^pabundance of his steadfast love;

33  for ^qhe does not afflict from his heart

or grieve the children of men.